North Carolina State University Athletics
Video: Patrick Wallace Talks Europe Trip
9/3/2014 12:00:00 AM
#WPN in Belgium!!! #Pack pic.twitter.com/Te11z1xK2m
-- Patrick Wallace (@P_Wallace2) August 18, 2014
Thursday, Aug. 14
We arrived in Brussels, Belgium around 8 a.m. this morning. Our team flew in from Philadelphia and another team who is on the same tour flew in from New Jersey. My team is coached by Siena College assistant coach Greg Manning and Donny Tind, an assistant coach from Mount Saint Mary's. A tour guide led our group on a bus from Brussels to Mechelen, another city in Belgium. We arrived at our hotel in downtown Mechelen and checked into our rooms then we all took a walk around downtown to check out where the nearest ATMs and food spots were.
It was really cool to see the different architecture in this city. We had a little break before practice, which was a couple of blocks down from our hotel. Practice consisted of going over some quick sets and getting familiar with my teammates for this trip that were from Siena, St. Bonaventure, Gardner-Webb, Brown and Maryland. Our first game was scheduled for 8 p.m. that evening. We ended up losing our first game to Sporting A Basketball club, 86-79. I finished with 12 points on four 3-point baskets. I also added 5 assists and some rebounds. Despite the loss, I felt confident our team would bounce back and win the rest of our games.
Friday, Aug. 15
I woke up a little early and got a quick workout in before breakfast. We then checked out of the Belgium hotel and headed to Dusseldorf, Germany to play the SG Setcham Club at 7 p.m. We explored a little of downtown Dusseldorf before our game. After grabbing some food we headed to our game where we won 67-60 over the SG Setcham Club. I finished with 8 points on two 3-pointers and a contested transition finish. We played a lot better as a team on the second day on both ends of the floor. After the game we got to interact a little with the other team and surprisingly they could all speak English well. That made it easier to communicate about their experiences playing in Europe and other things about European life.
Saturday, Aug. 16
We traveled as a team from Dusseldorf to Cologne in Germany for the afternoon and we walked around the city. Our first stop was "The Dome." The Dome is the second largest Catholic Church in the world behind the Vatican. Cologne was an interesting set-up; the stores were all familiar brands like H&M, Lacoste, Subway, and Dunkin Donuts. We then headed to our game where we played the Solingen Basketball Club. We won our game 79-65 over an A Division team. I finished with 9 points on three 3-pointers and 3 assists. We head back to Belgium tonight.
Patrick Wallace Talks About His European Tour With Global Sports Academy
Sunday, Aug. 17
After arriving in Mechelen, Belgium the previous night, we woke up on Sunday morning and participated in a coach's clinic put on by our own coach, Greg Manning. We ran through various drills for local Belgium high school and professional coaches. After this we drove as a team on the bus to Gent, Belgium and walked around the city trying some of my favorite Belgium chocolate and eating different types of food. We also checked out the Sint-baafskathedraal in Gent. This is the huge Catholic Church in the middle of downtown. When I went inside, it was amazing to see how old the brick and pillars looked as well as the beautiful stain glass windows. After this we headed to our game. We lost 99-91 to a Belgium professional team named Ostend. I had 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. We head back to Mechelen tonight after our game.
Monday, Aug. 18
On Monday, we drove from Mechelen to Brugges in Belgium. We explored the city of Brugges a little bit in the afternoon. I took this time to go get some Belgium chocolate, which tasted great! It was worth the money to get a little chocolate treat before our game. After hanging out and taking pictures in Brugges, we headed to our game. We beat Oxoco 91-85. I finished with 4 points and 3 assists. After that we ate and drove back to Mechelen for the night.
Tuesday, Aug. 19
We woke up very early and took the EuroStar to London. The EuroStar moves at 200 miles per hour. When we arrived in London, we walked around the city and it really reminded me of New York City. Our first stop as a team was Buckingham Palace. We got there just in time to see the daily Guards change. Every day at 11:15 a.m., the guards in front of Buckingham Palace switch after their 24 hour shift is over. It was a cool ritual to see as everyone lined the streets up. The second place I went was NikeTown. They had an entire floor on futbol (soccer) which was weird for me to see coming from America where basketball, football and baseball are the main sports. We took the EuroStar back to Belgium after a long and fun day in London.
Buckingham Palace #London pic.twitter.com/E8RgisZ7Rd
-- Patrick Wallace (@P_Wallace2) August 19, 2014
Wednesday, Aug. 20
We took a short bus ride from Mechelen to Brussels in Belgium. As we arrived in Belgium we went to the former 1954 World Fair grounds. The structure we saw was a huge structure meant to look like an atom. It is called Atomium Brussels. The atom has 9 parts to it that represent the 9 regions of Belgium. This represents the unity that this country has within the 9 regions. Our next stop was the King's House. The King of Belgium does not live but he works in the "King's House." It is a huge, beautiful building with gold fencing. We won our game 90-82 that night against Binnenland Basketball club. I finished with 6 points on two 3-pointers, 3 assists and 4 rebounds.
Overall this was a great experience for me to see four different countries (Netherlands, Belgium, England and Germany). I am thankful for this opportunity but excited to be back working with my teammates in Raleigh!
